First off. kudos and many thanks to Lynell, Jenny, Jack and Gordy for an excellent "Chill".The food was excellent. The Rum Cake rocked and was nearly consumed when one of the local bears, (Hello Bear) decided to pay us a visit for a piece of the cake. No joke, this rascal had to go 300 lbs. and was not at all impressed with our blinding flashlights and our yelling and screaming at him. After we were all hoarse and our flashlight batteries were dying he decided the cake wasn't worth the effort and let us be.Friday night was reasonably uneventful and pretty quite for the most part but, Sat. night was lively to say the least. Car alarms, read: Bears alarms, along with alot of yelling went on seemingly forever. Then......it was time for the Coyotes to start in! Packs of rabid, salivating, (makes for a good story huh?)started their howling and yapping throughout the night. All this action really screwed up my sleep pattern.The 2nd Lady was pretty much oblivious too it all as she was SURE I would handle these invading marauders.A weekend for the ages. The bear (Hello Bear) will grow in size as the years go by, but one thing is for sure.Great food, great company and a grand time was had by all. I'm bringin ear buds next year! I hate car alarms. See ya all there!

Rick got up from the campfire to get something from his tent, took a few steps toward Just Bob's palace on his way to his tent, and said (in a surprisingly normal voice) "Hello Bear." A minute or two later Hello Bear emerged from the bushes behind our campsite and had a bead on the rum cake and cookies. RCB'ers are not going to let some interloper grab our sweets, and Hello Bear though better of tangling with a group of old farts who were defending their treats.

After some reflection, the bears really are not interested in we humans. Our food is a different issue. The lesson from the experience is to put food into the bear boxes (which we were) as soon as no one is eating it (which we didn't Saturday night with the sweets). Cars are not a substitute for bear boxes - the reason for the car alarms going off.

Here is our Buddy wandering through our campsite because there was no food out of the bear boxes. Courtesy of Ernesto who was up early.